9/11 Memorial

Thrusting high in the New York City azure sky
twin towers emblematic of capitals great power
to reach the very sun, they seemed destined to try.
Within the hour, under attack, they would quickly die.

Twenty-three Saudi men, vengeance in mind
aboard four glistening aluminum and titanium
cylinders with wings would swiftly surely find
targets of great magnitude with destruction the sum.

Inside the towers were both women and men
representing all the cultures found worldwide
gathered tasks to perform, each as a citizen
free to pursue their secret dreams with pride.

It was business as usual. No one dreamt that day
of the destruction that was that morn to come.
No one but the twenty-three could clearly say
They had come there to die; that was simply dumb.

Yet, with only box cutters as weapons these desperate
Men hijacked commercial airliners, four doomed flights.
The first hit the south tower and as flames sealed its fate
The second slammed the north tower, the deadliest of sights.

Mushrooms of fire high in the morning New York sky
blossom before the buildings start their fateful fall.
As the towers begin to tumble and their occupants die,
from high windows people leap adding to the fateful pall.

Three thousand five hundred souls that day would cease
to live and breathe; to create and build their lives.
Crumbling towers ate them up, threw their ashes on the breeze.
They left children. They left grieving husbands and wives.

The third plane on its deadly way over Washington D. C. flew
toward the Pentagon, sitting in thought to be impregnable repose.
Soon screaming down from the morning sky the plane slew
Military figures, men and women, officers and men death chose.

The carnage here was less than in the towers, but people died.
Children were orphaned and husbands and wives were widowed.
Grieving families were shocked and witnesses to the scene cried.
Could this be the end? Not a chance. We all know what followed.

Flight ninety-three planned to hit the Capitol and planned to kill
Lawmakers; Senators or Congressmen, they didn’t really care.
This time Americans fought back. Passengers and plane were kill,
as were the Saudis who had seized the plane. They died there.

The passenger revolt came too late to save the passengers lives,
though thanks to cell phones some were able with family to talk
and let them know what was happening to their husbands and wives.
From the terribly torn sod on a Pennsylvania hillside no one would walk.

Our President, after spiriting his Saudi friends away to their home,
declared we were at war with terrorism and inspired great pride.
Every American felt violated and wanted to fight back, protect home
and hearth from further attack. Righteous wrath fumed nation wide.

All Islam was suspect. We knew it was they who our towers wrecked
and brought worldwide support and sympathy for us to our side.
The whole world was shocked, but Islamic celebration flowed unchecked.
The great Satan had been wounded grievously fostering Islamic pride.

Our reaction was swift to come. Anger seethed and burst forth
across our great nation. That our loss could be cause for celebration
was something hard to understand. From south to furthest north
people didn’t understand how Muslims could cheer our degradation.

The president used this rage to attack a dictator in far distant Iraq.
At first it was to destroy weapons of mass destruction destined for us.
When none were found, this dictator CIA helped dominate Iraq
was declared a despot removed because he was an undemocratic cuss.

Strangely, our invasion was not seen by all Iraqis as liberation
and this nation cobbled together after WW II flew apart.
Suni’s  fought Shiite’s and both fought the tribal Kurds.
Defeating the dictator’s reign of terror was the start.
As bad as he was he held Iraq together with power, not nerds.

With our invasion, this stability was lost and those thoughts
of instant democracy lost to the reality of civil war.
Civilian contractors on top of soldiers and Marines in clots
of controlled zones quickly learned just how to score.

For the military it was learning whom to suppress to stay alive.
Civilian contractors learned whom they might exploit.
Charging quadruple costs for shoddy work made them thrive.
At ripping off both the U. S. and Iraqis they became adroit.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney jointly brought this nightmare to pass
in the name of patriotism and American national pride.
While they and greedy corporations have become rich,while, alas,
they’ve  nearly destroyed the middle class nationwide.

Seven years after the grievous attack, its leader Osama Bin Laden
remains free. Our nation spends eleven billion a week in Iraq’s war
and our national debt soars. Surely there must be a witch or maven
able to extricate us before both death toll and costs really soar.

END